Spaced
by bitezombiesback
Summary: What would have happened if Garrus and Shepard had started things up before the annihilation of the SR1? Continued after popular demand. Language.
1. Chapter 1

"You know Garrus, if you're not comfortable with this, it's okay. I'm not trying to pressure you."

They've only just stopped Sovereign and Saren a few days ago. They're back on the Normandy, and she's in the main battery with him. It's a conversation they never expected to have with each other, but now that they're on the subject, it seems only natural that their relationship progress to something more.

"Shepard, you're about the only friend I've got left in this screwed up galaxy. I'm not going to pretend I've got a fetish for humans... but this isn't about that. This is about us."

She smiles at him as she walks away.

"I'll let you get back to work."

"Right. 'Cause I'm in a great place to omtimize firing algorithms right now."

* * *

It's a few nights later. She steps out of her shower and he's there waiting for her, with a white bottle in his hand.

"Hey. I brought wine. Best I could afford on a vigilante's salary."

He turns on some music and leans against the wall as seductively as he knows how.

"If you were a turian I'd be complimenting your waist or your fringe. So... your, uh, hair looks good. And your waist is... very supportive. Hopefully that's not offensive in human culture. Crap, I knew I should have watched the vids. Throw me a line, here, Shepard."

"Calm down Garrus. You're worrying too much. And talking too much."

She turns off the music, trying not to laugh at how nervous he seems. She thinks he's adorable.

"I just... I've seen so many things go wrong, Shepard. My work at C-Sec, what happened with Sidonis... I want something to go right... Just once. Just..."

She touches his right cheek and they lean together, their foreheads touching, and he strokes her arm. They know it's worth the effort to be together. It won't go wrong. It can't.

* * *

They're doing some bullshit work for the Counsil, searching for geth in the Terminus System. It's routine busines, nothing out of the ordinary, until the Collector ship appears out of nowhere and blows the hell out of the Normandy. Too soon it's in pieces, and half the crew is already dead before she can do anything about it.

He's there with her in a heartbeat.

"Get everyone onto the escape shuttles!"

"Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship. I'm not leaving either."

"I need you to get the crew onto the evac shuttles. I'll take care of Joker."

"Shepard..."

Her voice is soft.

"Garrus, we _will_ be together again. There's no Shepard without Vakarian."

Then she hardens into commander mode.

"Go. Now!"

He nods and obliges, ushering crew members to the escape while she sprints to the cockpit. He sends shuttle after shuttle, and finally it's just him standing on the burning ship. She hasn't come back. He starts to make his way to the cockpit, but an explosion rocks the ship, tearing an insurmountable gash into his path. He stares at it and looks out past the burning ship he stands on and into the void of space. Scrap metal floats by. The body of a dead crew member. And before he can process any sort of emotion, there she is, drifting away from him, clutching at the leak in her air supply.

"Shepard!"

The yell is lost into space, and he is too as he kicks off toward her. Though she struggles with her tanks, she sees him, stretches out a hand to meet his. He grasps it, pulls himself toward her, and they're falling, floating, locked together and weightless. His omni-tool quickly fixes the leak, but she's lost so much air. Already she's gasping inside her helmet, her breath steaming the glass as she squeezes her eyes shut. He's panicked, but he thinks rapidly. His omni-tool allows him to merge her tubes to his air supply, and she gulps in the fresh oxygen at the same time as a look of horror crosses her features and she comms him.

"You stayed behind."

"I saw you out here."

"You could have saved yourself. Dammit, Garrus, you could have lived!"

She's strong. She's not crying, but she looks like she might. Her lip is trembling. He sees it and bumps helmets with her. It's the closest they can be together. Dying in each other's arms, but unable to touch. They reel through the darkness together, but he is weighted in her eyes.

"There's no Vakarian without Shepard."

She can't be angry with him when they're about to die. She won't waste her last moments with him that way.

"I love you, Garrus."

"I love you too, Shepard."

* * *

(A/N): I know. It sucks, and I hate leaving it like that. I need to play some Sarah McLaughlin and sob in the dark after that ending. Present tense because I like a challenge. Weird formatting because I said so. Review and favorite if you liked it! (Or if you hate me for killing them, but otherwise would have enjoyed it.)


	2. Chapter 2

Her eyes flicker open almost spasmodically. She's lying on a cold metal slab, covered only by the lightest of hospital gowns. Sweet air flows into her lungs in a desperate gasp as her upper half jerks upright, arms outstretched. She reaches for him, but only finds a black-haired woman whose features are otherwise blurry.

"Damn it, Wilson. She's not ready yet! Give her the sedative."

She's pushed back down, too weak to resist the light shove, and all she hears is her own loud breathing.

"Heart rate dropping. Stats falling back into normal range."

The darkness starts to creep into her vision again and she can't bear it, she has to find him before she dies again. But the heaviness is already seeping into her limbs and she's no longer in control of her body as the lifelessness consumes her.

"That was too close. We almost lost her."

Everything is black.

This time when she wakes up it's more slowly. She floats slowly toward consciousness, where the slow beeping of medical machinery cuts through the fog in her head like a blade. She's on a bed now instead of the metal plate, and she's fully dressed. She looks around the room and there's the black-haired woman, smiling patiently at her.

She tries to croak out a question, but her voice hasn't caught up with her yet. A hand goes to her throat as confusion turns the corners her mouth in a frown.

"Hello, Commander Shepard. My name is Miranda Lawson. I know you have a lot of questions right now, so let me brief you first."

"Garrus?"

She's finally managed a single word, her voice hoarse from death, and she's sure it's all she needs to say. However, the woman in front of her exchanges a look with the bald man standing off to the side who shrugs in response.

"Maybe one of her crew members?"

"Probably the turian she was with when we found her."

Her heart almost stops again, and she leaps from the bed, immediately stumbling to the ground. Her muscles are feeble and her whole body feels weak from unuse. From her location on the ground, she frantically clutches at the boots of the other woman in the room.

"Where?"

The woman is prying her hands off the expensive leather and trying to pull her to her feet.

"Be careful! I just restored you to health. Do you have any idea how many credits we spent on you? Billions. Now sit down and listen for a moment."

Burning anger shoots through her barely cognizant brain. This woman can't understand that only a moment ago she was dead, was dying, her lungs on fire and her hands numb but tightly fastened to the man before her, who she can just barely see through the tinted helmet, gasping and straining for air - a sweet relief he'll never find.

This black-haired scum can't possibly comprehend that minutes ago, she'd watched the only man she'd ever love sacrifice his life to spend a few fleeting seconds with her. To extend her own life, if only momentarily. So why the hell was she alive, and was there even the slightest chance that he could be too?

She needs water. It feels like the fire in her lungs has moved to her throat. Did they teleport her here? No, that's impossible. Or had their ship happened upon her just after she lost consciousness?

She tries to speak again, and it's mostly growling sounds. The woman before her makes a grimace and walks out of the room. She starts to panic and try to follow on shaking legs, but then the woman is back, handing her the best tasting glass of water she's ever had. She downs it without a thought and glares at the woman.

"Where is Garrus? Is he okay? I swear, if you let anything happen to him, I will tear your limbs off."

The words sound almost comical as she says them, but she has never been more serious. She's already preparing a Pull, her hands glowing blue.

"The turian?"

"Yes, the god-damned turian. Where is he?"

The woman's cool composure begins to crumble as she looks nervously at her companion, who has watched almost silently.

"Commander... Do you have any idea where or when you are?"

She shakes her head once. No, and she couldn't care less. Why are they stalling? She's shifting impatiently from leg to leg, her muscles strangely weak.

This time the man speaks.

"You're in a Cerberus lab. It's been two years since you died. The turian... Garrus... We found your bodies frozen together. Sent him back to Palaven."

She's immobilized, and her voice catches in her throat again, but not with thirst.

"He's alive?"

The man's eyes stare downward at the floor as he whispers the reply.

"No."

* * *

(A/N): I know, it took forever, and the ending is still devastating despite how long you waited for it. Please don't hit me. I hate myself for writing it too.


End file.
